Emma Goldman, The Social Significance of the
Modern Drama
(Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1914; The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.)

THE SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA: HENRIK IBSEN

AN ENEMY OF SOCIETY

DR. THOMAS STOCKMANN is called to the position of medical adviser
to the management of the "Baths," the main resource
of his native town.

A sincere man of high ideals, Dr. Stockmann returns home
after an absence of many years, full of the spirit of enterprise
and progressive innovation. For as he says to his brother Peter,
the town Burgomaster, "I am so glad and content. I
feel so unspeakably happy in the midst of all this growing, germinating
life. After all, what a glorious time we do live in. It is as
if a new world were springing up around us."

Burgomaster. Do you really think so?

Dr. Stockmann. Well, of course, you can't
see this as clearly as I do. You've spent all your life in this
place, and so your perceptions have been dulled. But I, who had
to live up there in that small hole in the north all those years,
hardly ever seeing a soul to speak a stimulating word to me--all
this affects me as if I were carried to the midst of a crowded
city--I know well enough that the conditions of life are small
compared with many other towns. But here is life, growth, an infinity
of things to work for and to strive for; and that is the main
point.

In this spirit Dr. Stockmann sets to his task. After two
years of careful investigation, he finds that the Baths are built
on a swamp, full of poisonous germs, and that people who come
there for their health will be infected with fever.

Thomas Stockmann is a conscientious physician. He loves
his native town, but he loves his fellow-men more. He considers
it his duty to communicate his discovery to the highest authority
of the town, the Burgomaster, his brother Peter Stockmann.

Dr. Stockmann is indeed an idealist; else he would know
that the man is often lost in the official. Besides, Peter
Stockmann is also the president of the board of directors
and one of the heaviest stockholders of the Baths. Sufficient
reason to upbraid his reckless medical brother as a dangerous
man:

Burgomaster. Anyhow, you've an ingrained
propensity for going your own way. And that in a well-ordered
community is almost as dangerous. The individual must submit himself
to the whole community, or, to speak more correctly, bow to the
authority that watches over the welfare of all.

But the Doctor is not disconcerted: Peter is an
official; he is not concerned with ideals. But there is the press,--that
is the medium for his purpose! The staff of the People's Messenger--Hovstad,
Billings, and Aslaksen, are deeply impressed by the Doctor's
discovery. With one eye to good copy and the other to the political
chances, they immediately put the People's Messenger at
the disposal of Thomas Stockmann. Hovstad sees great
possibilities for a thorough radical reform of the whole life
of the community.

Hovstad. To you, as a doctor and a man of
science, this business of the water-works is an isolated affair.
I fancy it hasn't occurred to you that a good many other things
are connected with it. . . . The swamp our whole municipal life
stands and rots in. . . . I think a journalist assumes an immense
responsibility when he neglects an opportunity of aiding the masses,
the poor, the oppressed. I know well enough that the upper classes
will call this stirring up the people, and so forth, but they
can do as they please, if only my conscience is clear.

Aslaksen, printer of the People's Messenger, chairman
of the Householders' Association, and agent for the Moderation
Society, has, like Hovstad, a keen eye to business. He
assures the Doctor of his whole-hearted coöperation, especially
emphasizing that, "It might do you no harm to have us middle-class
men at your back. We now form a compact majority in the town--when
we really make up our minds to. And it's always as well, Doctor,
to have the majority with you. . . . And so I think it wouldn't
be amiss if we made some sort of a demonstration. . . . Of course
with great moderation, Doctor. I am always in favor of moderation;
for moderation is a citizen's first virtue--at least those are
my sentiments."

Truly, Dr. Stockmann is an idealist; else he would not
place so much faith in the staff of the People's Messenger,
who love the people so well that they constantly feed them with
high-sounding phrases of democratic principles and of the noble
function of the press, while they pilfer their pockets.

That is expressed in Hovstad's own words, when Petra,
the daughter of Dr. Stockmann, returns a sentimental novel
she was to translate for the People's Messenger: "This
can't possibly go into the Messenger," she tells Hovstad;
"it is in direct contradiction to your own opinion."

Hovstad. Well, but for the sake of the cause--

Petra. You don't understand me yet. It is
all about a supernatural power that looks after the so-called
good people here on earth, and turns all things to their advantage
at last, and all the bad people are punished.

Hovstad. Yes, but that's very fine. It's
the very thing the public like.

Petra. And would you supply the public with
such stuff? Why, you don't believe one word of it yourself. You
know well enough that things don't really happen like that.

Hovstad. You're right there; but an editor
can't always do as he likes. He often has to yield to public opinion
in small matters. After all, politics is the chief thing in life--at
any rate for a newspaper; and if I want the people to follow me
along the path of emancipation and progress, I mustn't scare them
away. If they find such a moral story down in the cellar, they're
much more willing to stand what is printed above it--they feel
themselves safer.

Editors of the stamp of Hovstad seldom dare to express
their real opinions. They cannot afford to "scare away"
their readers. They generally yield to the most ignorant and vulgar
public opinion; they do not set themselves up against constituted
authority. Therefore the People's Messenger drops the "greatest
man" in town when it learns that the Burgomaster and
the influential citizens are determined that the truth shall be
silenced. The Burgomaster soundly denounces his brother's
"rebellion."

Burgomaster. The public doesn't need new
ideas. The public is best served by the good old recognized ideas
that they have already. . . . As an official, you've no right
to have any individual conviction.

Dr. Stockmann. The source is poisoned, man!
Are you mad? We live by trafficking in filth and garbage. The
whole of our developing social life is rooted in a lie!

Burgomaster. Idle fancies--or something worse.
The man who makes such offensive insinuations against his own
native place must be an enemy of society.

Dr. Stockmann. And I must bear such treatment!
In my own house. Katrine! What do you think of it?

Mrs. Stockmann. Indeed, it is a shame and
an insult, Thomas---- . . . But, after all, your brother has the
power----

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, but I have the right!

Mrs. Stockmann. Ah, yes, right, right! What
is the good of being right when you haven't any might?

Dr. Stockmann. What! No good in a free society
to have right on your side? You are absurd, Katrine. And besides,
haven't I the free and independent press with me? The compact
majority behind me? That's might enough, I should think!

Katrine Stockmann is wiser than her husband. For he who
has no might need hope for no right. The good Doctor has
to drink the bitter cup to the last drop before he realizes the
wisdom of his wife.

Threatened by the authorities and repudiated by the People's
Messenger, Dr. Stockmann attempts to secure a hall
wherein to hold a public meeting. A free-born citizen, he believes
in the Constitution and its guarantees; he is determined to maintain
his right of free expression. But like so many others, even most
advanced liberals blinded by the spook of constitutional rights
and free speech, Dr. Stockmann inevitably has to pay the
penalty of his credulity. He finds every hall in town closed against
him. Only one solitary citizen has the courage to open his doors
to the persecuted Doctor, his old friend Horster.
But the mob follows him even there and howls him down as an enemy
of society. Thomas Stockmann makes the discovery in his
battle with ignorance, stupidity, and vested interests that "the
most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom in our midst are the
compact majority, the damned compact liberal majority." His
experiences lead him to the conclusion that "the majority
is never right. . . . That is one of those conventional lies against
which a free, thoughtful man must rebel. . . . The majority has
might unhappily--but right it has not."

Hovstad. The man who would ruin a whole community
must be an enemy of society!

Dr. Stockmann. It doesn't matter if a lying
community is ruined! . . . You'll poison the whole country in
time; you will bring it to such a pass that the whole country
will deserve to perish. And should it come to this, I say, from
the bottom of my heart: Perish the country! Perish all its people!

Driven out of the place, hooted and jeered by the mob, Dr.
Stockmann barely escapes with his life, and seeks safety in
his home, only to find everything demolished there. In due time
he is repudiated by the grocer, the baker, and the candlestick
maker. The landlord, of course, is very sorry for him. The Stockmanns
have always paid their rent regularly, but it would injure his
reputation to have such an avowed rebel for a tenant. The grocer
is sorry, and the butcher, too; but they can not jeopardize their
business. Finally the board of education sends expressions of
regret: Petra is an excellent teacher and the boys of Stockmann
splendid pupils, but it would contaminate the other children were
the Stockmanns allowed to remain in school. And again Dr. Stockmann
learns a vital lesson. But he will not submit; he will be strong.

Dr. Stockmann. Should I let myself be beaten
off the field by public opinion, and the compact majority, and
such deviltry? No, thanks. Besides, what I want is so simple,
so clear and straightforward. I only want to drive into the heads
of these curs that the Liberals are the worst foes of free men;
that party-programmes wring the necks of all young living truths;
that considerations of expediency turn morality and righteousness
upside down, until life is simply hideous. . . . I don't see any
man free and brave enough to dare the Truth. . . . The strongest
man is he who stands most alone.

A confession of faith, indeed, because Henrik Ibsen, although
recognized as a great dramatic artist, remained alone in his stand
as a revolutionist.

His dramatic art, without his glorious rebellion against every
authoritative institution, against every social and moral lie,
against every vestige of bondage, were inconceivable. Just as
his art would lose human significance, were his love of truth
and freedom lacking. Already in "Brand," Henrik Ibsen
demanded all or nothing, no weak-kneed moderation,--no compromise
of any sort in the struggle for the ideal. His proud defiance,
his enthusiastic daring, his utter indifference to consequences,
are Henrik Ibsen's bugle call, heralding a new dawn and the birth
of a new race.